Words are Swords

 The film, the Great Debaters, tells a story how Mr. Tolson taught his Wiley College debate team. They experienced a lot, and finally, they got the chance to debate with the Harvard debate team and beat them.
Mr. Tolson said, 「Debate is blood sport. It’s combat. But your weapons are words.」 It means that whether you can win the debate or not, it depends on your words. From the movie we can see that if you want to win the debate, you should read lots of books. Then change the information into your words, and use them as the weapon when you debate with others. In addition, the most important thing is speak the truth.
There two scenes impress me most. The first one is Mr. Tolson sat in the boat and trained the four students who stood on the riverside with the stopper in their mouths. The second one is before the Wiley College debate team debated with Harvard debate team, Mr. Lowe repeated the dialogue with the other two members what Mr. Tolson taught them in scene one. Why these two scenes impress me most? The reason is the dialogue in these two scenes touches me. 「Who is the judge? The judge is God. Why is he God? Because he decides who wins or loses, not my opponent. Who is your opponent? He doesn』t exist. Why does he not exist? Because he is merely a dissenting voice to the truth I speak. Speak the truth. Speak the truth.」
Speak the truth. Words are swords. Mr. Tolson guided his team debate with other colleges, and never been beaten. But one time on their way, they saw a Negro was lynched by the white men. They shocked, and could do nothing but escaped. In that time, Negroes were discriminated by the white men. Negroes did not have the equal treatment with the whites no matter they showed that they could finish the work as well as whites. Therefore, it was a god-given chance that they can debate with Harvard. The resolved is civil disobedience is a moral weapon fight for justice. In the last debate, Mr. Farmer used the fact that they experienced (they saw a Negro was lynched) as argument. He touched the audience won the applause from them. And the result was they beat Harvard.
Your opponent does not exist. He is a merely dissenting voice to the truth you speak. No matter who is your opponent, from the world famous university, how excellent he is or he is a white men, it means nothing. In the debate, words are the best weapons. And telling the truth can make your words stronger. Only truth can touch people’s heart. The Wiley College debate team beat Harvard team not only on words, but also on the implication after words.
It is a motivational movie. It shows us the war without blood. The weapons are just words. We can feel the fascinations of words in the film. And there are lots of gorgeous words in the film, such as 「Beauty, I heard an old man say, all that is beautiful drifts away, like the waters」 and 「History is a nightmare from I』m trying to awake」. These words deserve us to ponder after watch this film. And we can see the Negroes constantly strive to be stronger, fight for the equal treatment with the whites.
As the old Chinese saying, 「A gentle man uses his tongue but not his fists」, this film teaches me that the words are swords.